Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh score high on literacy

The literacy percentage among Muslim women in Madhya Pradesh is much higher than their counterparts in north Indian states, according to the Madhya Pradesh Muslim Education Society (MPMES).

Madhya Pradesh has topped the figure with 60.1 per cent literacy among the Muslim women which was much better than other States including Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Rajasthan as per the census of population 2001.

MPMES president and former Madhya Pradesh Minister Ibrahim Qureshi told PTI that due to the active role of women in the field of education and social work in Madhya Pradesh, the Muslim women literacy rate has topped the list with 60.1 per cent among all north Indian States.

The Muslim population in Madhya Pradesh is only 6.4 per cent of the total population and the literacy percent for Muslims in the State was 70.3 and this was achieved only by the active participation of women in the State, he said.

Jammu and Kashmir has a maximum Muslim population of 67.0 per cent but the women literacy

rate was only 34.9 per cent with seventh position among north Indian States and much less than

Madhya Pradesh.

West Bengal has secured the second position in Muslim women literacy rate with 49.8 per cent, Jharkhand third with 42.7 per cent, Rajasthan fourth with 40.8 per cent, Assam fifth with 40.2, Uttar Pradesh sixth with 37.4, Jammu and Kashmir seventh with 34.9 and Bihar eighth with 31.5 per cent among the north Indian States, he said.

MPMES, a unit of All India Muslim Education Society, has reconstituted its women cell in Madhya Pradesh appointing Dr. Firoza Ahsan Ali, former MLA from Burhanpur, as president seeing their role in the field of education and social work.

Mr. Qureshi said that MPMES has been working for expansion and publicity of education among the Muslim community in the State for the last 30 years by providing information about various programmes run by the Centre and the State including School Chalo, Madarsa Chalo Abhiyan, Scholarship to the poor and needy students, guidance to the educational institutions run by the Muslim community and many others.

He said that those women working effectively in the field of education and social work had been appointed with the consent of MPMES women wing president Dr. Firoza Ahsan Ali.